Rosatom announced that it completed fuel delivery to Kudankulam for the first of the two nuclear power reactors that are under construction there. The first shipment took place on May 25, 2008.
On June 5, 2008, Russia shut down the ADE-5 plutonium production reactor at the Siberian Chemical Combine, ending plutonium production in Seversk/Tomsk-7. The other plutonium production reactor in Seversk - ADE-4 - was shut down on April 20, 2008.
The only remaining plutonium production reactor - ADE-2 in Zheleznogorsk/Krasnoyarsk-26 - will continue to operate until 2010. Since 1994, the plutonium produced by the three reactors was stored in oxide form and was not used for weapon purposes.
UPDATE 06/09/08: The reactor was stopped at 1:03pm local time. This post on Totalwonkerr.com has links to photos and videos.
Rostekhnadzor initiated an environmental impact assessment of a project to remove spent fuel of the IRT-2000 research reactor from Bulgaria. The fuel will be taken to Mayak, where it will be reprocessed. Fresh HEU fuel was removed from the IRT-2000 reactor site in December 2003.
Rosatom reports today that three fuel shipments have been delivered to the Kudankulam nuclear power station. The first shipment was reported to take place on May 25, 2008.The initial fuel delivery will provide fuel for startup of the reactor and for subsequent refueling during its first year of operation. The fuel is enriched to less than 4.1%.
On May 25, 2008 Russia delivered the first shipment of fresh fuel for one of the two VVER-1000 rectors that are built in Koodankulam, India.
During President Medvedev's visit to Beijing Russia and China signed an agreement that commits Russia to building a uranium enrichment facility in China as well as to supplying China with low-enriched uranium. The deal is estimated to cost $1 billion. Russia have been discussing construction of a new enrichment facility for some time. It was reported to add 0.5 million SWU/year of capacity to the 1.5 million SWU/year that Russia has already built in China. The new facility may use newer technology.
Latvia shipped all spent fuel of its IRT-M research reactor in Salaspils to Russia on May 12, 2008. The shipment, which contained 14.4 kg of spent fuel, was delivered by train to the Mayak facility in Russia. The operation involved Rosatom and the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration.
The United States and Russia signed an agreement on civilian nuclear cooperation, commonly known as 123 agreement, on May 6th, 2008. Text of the agreement, accompanying Nuclear Proliferation Assessment Statement, and other statements is available from the Federation of American Scientists. On May 13th, 2008 President Bush submitted the agreement to Congress. The agreement will enter into force after during 90 days of session unless Congress passes a resolution of disapproval. A collection of links to congressional documents related to the agreement posted by Robert Zarate. I argue in my column in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that the agreement should be approved.
AREVA selected Bonneville County, ID as a place for its first U.S. enrichment plant. The plant, with estimated cost of $2 billion, is expected to begin operation in 2014.
GE-Hitachi announced a plan to build an enrichment facility in the Wilmington, NC. The plant is expected to provide 3.5 to 6 million SWU/year using the Silex laser isotope separation technology, which GEH licensed from an Australian company Silex Systems Ltd. in 2006. Construction of the plant is not expected to begin until at least 2012.
